Sealed destinies
by A-C15
Summary: When the water flows, even the rock must yield. When the correct thing happens, even the gods will fall.
1. Anhur the stranger

Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak.

Sun Tzu, _The Art of War_

* * *

"I never thought that a human would be so troublesome. Run now that you still have time!"

The creatures were coming closer. Rabonna was about to fell.

She was a warrior and she lately found pride on it. In fact, he'd seen criatures brought out of the worst of nightmares attack, stab and even main her and she was barely standing, having to concentrate just into surviving, her body almost out of control but she would keep fighting.

Something akin to a giant tentacle broke the wall.

"My sword! Where is my sword?"

He pondered for a moment. He'd hid in plain sight for almost two years. Mostly just observing while the entire continent dissolved into a bloody carnage.

But only for the last two days he'd made plans. Weird and impossible plans. Because, what he could possibly do? He wasn't supposed to interfere. He was a stranger. She was not even among the strongest of them. Why, for goodness' sake, it had to be her? He had met literally thousands of women, why her?

Then, he remembered his father's words, just before he was assigned that easy mission.

"You make so much fun of such things as feelings. I wish I could be there when someone finally pierces your armor. It will be interesting."

He would be laughing at the top of his lungs, of course.

"Who are you?"

Don't think. Act.

"I am sorry I lied to you."

"What?"

He took her sword. After all, he'd already sealed his own fate.

"My name's Anhur, Clarice. Nice to meet you."

He charged, feeling the rush of energy channeled through his body and mind and ignoring the shouts of the guards.

"He is crazy!"

But the warriors outside felt somebody was amiss almost immediately.

"Is that... Yoki?"


	2. Direct actions

"_L'enfer est plein de bonnes volontés et désirs_"

"Hell is full of good wishes and desires"

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux

* * *

The battle was not looking good. Some of the most powerful Awakened Beings alive were facing Cassandra the Dust Eater and they were just delaying the creature.

To make things worse, Priscilla and something that closely resembled the late Riful were having a fight of their own that made the other battle look like something childish.

The leader of the warriors, _Captain_ Miria, was waiting for an opening to finish off their enemy and prevent it from reinforcing Priscilla even more.

It was then when they saw or ,rather,felt something not entirely right. Someone or something was simply walking through the battlefield. Something like black armor covered it, except the face, a normal human face... with black eyes. It wielded a warrior's sword.

"What's that? A male Awakened Being? What's with his yoki? It feels all wrong!"

The newcomer observed the situation. The next move would be a major breaching of the rules. Again.

"Cassandra. Impressive. And this is not even the most powerful being around here."

Octavia didn't take the trespassing well.

"You! The stupid one! Don't you see that you have arrows on your back?"

"My name is Anhur and I don't care about some arrows. They are harmless."

"What a stupid name."

"As you wish."

"Look out!"

One of the many hand-heads of the Dust Eater grabbed Anhur and brought him near to the central body of the top.

"What are you? You don't look human and you don't have a taste at all."

"That's because you are not chewing me."

It was true. In fact, it looked like the face was bleeding some kind of black blood.

"I saw what that polygonal friend over there did to one of your faces. How amusing. By the way, you are trying to move me when I blocked your control over your external faces. Keep trying. It will make splitting you all the easier."

With the combined might of the Awakened Beings and the warriors destroying her limps, the Dust Eater was weakened enough for the next step.

"Miria, isn't it? Weren't you planning to get rid of whatever it was attracting the Dust Eater there?"

The other team of warriors was already working on that.

The face exploded.

"I think that you ladies and can handle this from now on. I would appreciate coming with me "

"Where are you going?"

"Don't you know that there are three other powerful ones?"

"Three?"

"Yes, three. I am sorry, I am going to be late,

Later followed by a suspicious Miria and Clare, Anhur slowly walked away of the Dust Eater and approached the other two creatures of immense power. In fact knowing that these things existed was one thing. Seeing them in action, or more precisely, fighting each other, was another very frightening thing. The childlike one was winning, but Anhur knew that, in fact, what it was doing was to unleash the true power of the one called Priscilla.

"Too much. Even if we hope for one of them to destroy the other two and get fairly weakened in the process, our chances of surviving are slim."

Ignoring his apparently

"Who are you? A one-digit of the Male Warriors' era? Where do you find that sowrd?"

Anhur looked straight to Miria. She flinched. After seeing so many distorted images of life in the form of Youmas and Awakened Beings, it shouldn't be like that. There was something about the way his armor moved, something about his blackened eyes that was beyond even the corruption of the Awakened Ones.

"I am not."

He looked down.

"I am not even a warrior. I am not fit to battle. I am not fit to help."

"I don't understand. What you did with that Abyssal One was impressive."

He smiled. If something, even more humanity was taking from his face.

"Maybe. But that's all."

Those were exactly the words he told his father, so many years in his past. He was able to subtly control matter at deep levels. "That's all, because they can easily destroy anything that I can conceive. I will always be a second option!" His father simply said. "You know what the price of breaking the rules would be."

The memory made his blood boil. He already broke the rules.

"I am sorry, Clare. I am stealing your revenge for now."

"How do you know?"

"She was impressive, Teresa. I am really surprised that they never came and poached her from your world. Maybe that's why they are so happily leaving you to die instead of sending someone that could really destroy your enemies."

It was not definitely yoki, Clare thought. But something powerful. And it was growing out of control.

"But now, screw their rules. I am giving you all enough time to figure out a solution."

With every part of his being now burning, he could see a dark shadow closing by. It started that way, his father told him once. "You hallucinate. You see yourself coming from the distance, step by step."

It was true. While the energy build-up reached a point of no return, a surprisingly smiling Anhur looked upon his suffering, gloated self.

"In case you are guessing, yes. I am _that_ you. The one that could make you live forever. But it looks like we can skip the part where I tell you to consider. We are many steps ahead that. The only question left is...

Just then the stranger released the charge. As expected, an unthinkable amount of energy leaped toward the fighting creatures. They weren't killed. It was not the idea, anyway. He was all too conscious about his lack of power to deliver such a killing stroke.

When the dust settled, it became clear that, instead of destroyed, the creatures were swept away. The price to pay was an almost professional-looking butchering of the one that dealt the blow.

But the pain simply wouldn't go.

The smiling Anhur was still floating around, too.

"You know, there simply can't be so many creatures that had the privilege of seeing their own body spread like this. Nice guts. Coming back to business. You were such in a hurry before. What I was about to ask was... Why?"

"Because I needed to prove myself. Because I needed to break this one stupid rule."

"You little liar."

"Because... I wanted to protect her."

"Now, you start to sound just like one of those idiot."

"It's different! I don't want to make her become something..."

"Don't make me laugh. You can't. Your mother was never one of the High Ones. Neither your grandmother or any of the many women that accepted their inferior position for an inferior line."

" . "

"How come so? It's true that you live indefinitely. But you age and, then, instead of accepting fate or changing if from the beginning, you reboot. "

Meanwhile, two half-stunned warriors started to regain consciousness and opened their eyed wide when they saw both the corpse and... Moving remains.

"I ask you. Why?"

"Because... It's not right. They say that their High Ones chose. But how they know? The last time of them approached a woman that didn't know that they are the fucking rulers of entire worlds was more than two centuries ago!"

"That's the spirit. But, don't you lied to Clarice, too. What makes it different?"

"I wouldn't... infect her."

"I told you. You can't, remember. By the way, she's all stitched and half-demon."

"Go to hell."

"Nasty, nasty. By the way, don't you feel strange that you are still breathing? Metaphorically speaking, of course. Your lungs are rather detached."

"Yes."

"Sigh. You still don't understand, do you? You are a descendant of the Bureaucrat, but the intelligence appears to be lost along the bloodline. You are still here, because a swarm great enough to sustain you grew the last two days."

"What?"

"Did you really think that you could decide when to break any rule? How arrogant."

"If you want to know, you are denying facts. While we pull you together... Come with me to see what you really did the last two days."


End file.
